Congrats to the BHC horse show team!

Black Hawk College’s horse show team recently was named the 2017-18 High Point Western Team for its region. This is the 15th consecutive year the college has won the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association Regional Championship.

The BHC team had a season total of 243 points, beating the next closest school (Iowa State University) by 57 points.

Kinsey Ayres qualified as the open high point rider and will represent Black Hawk College at Nationals in May.

The college hosted the Zone 7, Region 4 Regional Championship on Sunday, Feb. 25. BHC riders competed against students from Augustana College, Illinois State University, Iowa State University, Northern Illinois University, Truman State University and Western Illinois University.

Regionals differ from a conventional horse show as the student-athletes have never ridden the horse they are showing.

Minutes before their specific class, riders draw for their mount. A key to success is being able to make adjustments with an unfamiliar horse on the rail and in a designated pattern.

Next up for the BHC riders are the IHSA Western Semifinal Championships. Regions send their Regional Championship team, plus the top two individuals in each division, to Semifinals.

Black Hawk College will host the IHSA Western Semifinal Championships on March 17-18. Black Hawk College is one of only three colleges to host Semifinals. The other host schools are Alfred University in New York and West Virginia University.

Semifinals narrow the field of roughly 2,500 western riders down to 150 national qualifiers who will represent their respective schools May 3-6 in Harrisburg, Penn.

In addition to five team riders, Black Hawk College will have nine students competing individually in Semifinals.

Below are the Black Hawk College results from the Feb. 25 Regionals. An asterisk denotes the students who will be competing in Semifinals.